The Enneagram IntroductionNine personality types characterized as Feeling, Instinctive, or ThinkingThe Enneagram is a personality framework that developed from a tradition of spiritual foundations. It emphasizes how self-knowledge can lead to greater awareness and better understanding. As Don Riso and Russ Hudson explain in their book The Wisdom of the Enneagram, the Enneagram combines insights from modern psychology with wisdom distilled from a number of different religious traditions.
There is extensive literature on the Enneagram, tracing its development and the details of its ramifications; there is no intention to explore all of these topics in depth here. Instead, the discussion below gives a short introduction to the system with links to the individual personality type descriptions to get you started. The Enneagram GroupsRiso and Hudson separate the nine Enneagram types into three sets of three. The Primary Triads indicate where a person is fundamentally centered: in the heart (Feeling), gut (Instinctive), or mind (Thinking). The Harmonic groups look to how a person copes with the world: learning more about it (Informed), putting on a happy face (Optimistic), or taking action (Reactive). The Hornevian groups describe how people tend to resolve disputes: Assertive, Withdrawn, or Compliant. Primary Triads: Feeling, Instinctive, and ThinkingEveryone's personality contains components of all three aspects described by the Primary Triads of Feeling, Instinct, and Thinking. However, the Enneagram system argues that in each of the types, one of these aspects has become blocked. When it does, the personality develops to fill in for the blocked feature. For example, a Two may be blocked in the area of compassion; he or she then compensates by openly caring about others and trying to support friends and family in overt ways.
The Feeling Triad, represented by the orange area in our diagram, is composed of types Two, Three, and Four. They are concerned with aspects of their own self-image and often try to manage that self-image through their connections with other people. The types in this Triad are all looking for a way to feel loved. A Two's solution is to nurture and care for others in the hopes that the others will, in turn, care for the Two. Threes feel they will be loved if they are successful, and they work hard at being the best. Fours are introspective and artistic; they look for a rescuer to somehow find them hiding inside themselves so they can find the love they seek. Types Eight, Nine, and One combine to form the Instinctive Triad, shown in the blue portion of the diagram. These three types have a common interest in controlling their environments. The Eight doesn't want the environment getting too close and will set up barriers of anger and aggressiveness to keep a boundary far back. The One, on the other hand, must deal with an inner voice that pushes for perfectionism, so the One will establish internal boundaries. To keep their emotions on an even keel, Nines try to strike a balance between external and internal boundaries, suppressing their energies and emotions. The Thinking Triad is made up of types Five, Six, and Seven, shown in green on the diagram above. They all search for the best strategies to deal with anxiety. Fives look inside themselves, calming their insecurities by focusing on intellectual pursuits. Sixes balance their internal worries with their skepticism about the external world, giving them a vigilant, somewhat hesitant posture. Sevens are always on the go; they keep busy, with hardly any time to reflect, making it easier to hold their anxieties at bay.
The Nine Enneagram Types
In order to identify which Enneagram personality type best describes you or someone else you know, you can use our free Enneagram Matrix to see the characteristics of all the types, and then choose the one that matches best. The matrix's rows and columns are divided by the Primary Triads of Feeling, Instinctive, and Thinking and the Harmonic groups of Informed, Optimistic, and Reactive. Our matrix gives a different perspective on the arrangement of the types from the circular placement around the Enneagram symbol. For those who are not used to seeing the numbers as labels for personality types, the placement in our matrix can seem out of order, but once you enter the world of the Enneagram, it begins to make sense. The Wings
People are rarely a classic representative of one of the nine types. Instead, they are modified and influenced by their wings, which expand the range of personality profiles. The dominant personality is still defining, so a Seven with a Six-wing (the Entertainer) is different from a Six with a Seven-wing (the Buddy). Each of our descriptions of the individual Enneagram types also describes the two wings associated with it. Historic DevelopmentThe evolution of the Enneagram is attributed to several theorists. George Gurdjieff in the late 1800s developed mystical teachings about the symbol itself. Oscar Ichaso in the 1950s overlaid the idea of personality types onto the Enneagram symbol. In the 1970s, the psychologist Claudio Naranjo added formality to Ichaso's framework. Since then, other researchers such as Helen Palmer and Don Riso have done extensive work in developing and extending the theory. Levels of FunctioningRiso and Hudson also thought of personality in terms of dimensions. They characterized the nine Enneagram types as the horizontal dimension and hypothesized that each individual's level of maturity and psychological health forms the vertical dimension. The Level of Development indicates whether a person is functioning at a healthy, average, or unhealthy level. These insights are similar to those made by Oldham and Morris in the development of their system, New Personality Self-Portrait. The details of the levels of functioning and the development of some of the other Enneagram concepts, such as directions of integration and disintegration, are more complex than can be covered in this short introduction. If you care to explore this fascinating system further, check out our references and find out more. More on the Enneagram System:  |
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The signature feature of the Enneagram is that in addition to being a personality system it is also a geometric shape: a nine-pointed star within a circle. As you learn more about the system, it becomes apparent how useful the symbol is in representing the relationships among the different types. Another interesting feature is that the personality types are identified by numbers. After you become comfortable with the Enneagram framework, you will be able to talk about how the characteristics of a One differ from those of a Six.
